_31st._--Lauderdale had an interview with Ld. Grenville, and repeated the substance of his late conversation with Mr. F.; Ld. G. listened with great attention, but made no reply. Just as L. went out, he called him back to beg that he would say to Ld. H. that, ‘He had many times abstained from going to Stable Yard, from an apprehension that if Mr. Fox should know he was there, he might suppose he was come upon business and make an effort to see him, which might do him harm; but that if he followed the dictates of his own inclination, he should be there every day,’ Tierney and Ld. Morpeth have both expressed to me very strongly their wishes and the necessity that Ld. H. should be the _locum tenens_ for his uncle. _1st August._--Ld. Rosslyn has written a letter on the subject of his Mission to Portugal, from which it appears he is not inclined to undertake the services assigned to him. When Admiral Markham read it, he observed upon it that, ‘Ld. St. Vincent, when he sees this, will say the fellow has got dung at his heart.’ Not a very elegant or delicate mode of expression! It is said that Spain is disposed to a war with France, in consequence of their having discovered that a plan of partitioning Spain is in agitation, by which Estremadura and Galicia are to be annexed to Portugal, and made into a kingdom for the Prince of the Peace,[221] while the rest of Spain is to be given to one of B.’s brothers. Mr. Goddard (Ld. Henry Spencer’s friend) arrived this evening from Paris with passports for Lauderdale. When the passport was required, Bonaparte exclaimed, ‘What! another passport! Have they not a blank one already? But this is of a piece with the whole of their conduct during the negotiation; delay, delay is their object.’ ‘But will you grant them the passport?’ ‘Yes, and for twenty more if they choose.’ _2nd._--Lauderdale set off for Paris this evening, with Professor Stewart, and Mr. Maddison from the Post Office. Ld. H. gave him a letter to Serra and Prince Masserano.[222] Mr. Fox better; Vaughan said this morning that there was a greater assemblage of favourable symptoms than there had been any day since he attended. [Sidenote: SHERIDAN’S INTRIGUES] Sheridan came here in the evening, and talked over his schemes. He enlarged greatly upon the state in which the House of Commons would be left if Mr. Fox were removed from it; deplored the unpopularity of Ld. Howick, and seemed to insinuate that Petty had been tried and found unfit for the task.[223] He has some project, all founded upon his enmity to Ld. Howick and hereditary suspicion of Ld. Henry, to try and rouse Ld. H.’s old partiality for Canning, and get him and Perceval into the Administration. _3rd._--Mr. Fox not quite so well. _4th._--Mr. Fox in high spirits, and talks confidently of meeting Parlt. in October; approves of an early session in time of war. He has not the slightest expectation of peace, and expects Lauderdale’s immediate return.